Improvement in gold washers and separators



B. Tvsou.

fiold'washer and Separator.

Patented Sept. 28,1875.

I Attorneya.

WIT

aim-(M IN PM PMOTO'UTBOGRIPHUI, WASHINGTON. By C other length to suitthe stream of water.

Unrrnn STATES PATENT DFFI CE.

BRYAN TYSON, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN cow WASHERS AND SEPARATORS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 168,116, datedSeptember 28, 1875; application filed a June 7, 1875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BRYAN TYSON, 0 Washington, District of Columbia,have invented certain new and useful Improvements inGold Washers andSeparators; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,and exact description of the invention, such as will enable othersskilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use it, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, which form part of thisspecification.

. In the drawings, Figure is a verticalloh gitudinal section of myapparatus complete.

Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the grating onto which the water,sand, &c., are fireside-,7

livered. Fig. 3 is a plan view of a portion of the platform, showing theconstruction of the holes therein.

A is an arrangement of grating for throwing out the larger stones andpebbles, made preferably of cast-iron, as follows: The bars "A shouldbe, say, six inches deep, one and one half inch thick on the top edge,inclining or sloping inward and downward on one side for about fourinches, until theyare brought to three-fourths of an inch. From thispoint downward the remaining two inches are of a uniformthicknessthree-fourths of an inch. The bars may be about six feet long,or any A2 are cleats, which are cast to, and form a portion or part 'of,said bars. The top edge of the bars being twice as thick as the bottomwill cause the open spaces to be wider at the bottom, and thus preventthe sand and gravel from clogging in their downward passage. The spacesbetween said bars should be about one and one-half an inch on the upperside.

The dimensions of the bars above given a say, fifteen to eighteen inchesapart.

will make the spaces two and a quarter inches on the under side. Thebars may, however, be of any desired thicknesson either edge, and thespaces between them of any desired width to suit the requirements in thecase,

such as further experiments may indicate.

The cleats A of said bars A should be from, Rods H of iron should bepassed throughthe whole set of bars and cleats, and fastened with screwsand nuts, which will make all very strong and secure.

The grating A can be made of any desired width by the addition ofsimilar cast bars, each one being separate and complete, within itself.This arrangement of gratingis adjustable. The spaces between'the barscan be made wider, when desired, by adding small strips of metal or woodto the cleats A and diminished by the removal of said strips. The bars,having been-securely fastened together, should be arranged atan-angle,-such-as will cause the water containing the gold, sand,pebbles, &c., to flow freely over them.

The objectof the aforesaid arrangement is to cause the sand, gold, andsmall pebbles to drop through the open spaces between the bars into boxB, situated'iiiimediately'under M neath, while the larger pebbles andstones are discharged over the lower side of the grating A.

A sufficiency of water should be permitted to flow over the bars towashsaid stones or other substances away, and thus prevent an inconvenientaccumulation. There should be a sufficiency of bars and spaces to allowall,

or very nearly all, of the sand'an'd small pebbles to fall through intothe box B.

In this case we would readily conclude that but a very small percentageof gold would be discharged with the larger pebbles and stones, and wewould, therefore, stand a chance to precipitate and save the wholeamount of the gold washed down to the machine by the'process hereinafterdescribed.

The water, sand, gravel, &c.,that are to be conveyed over said bars aresuch as are washed down in the ordinary process of hydraulic mining.

0 represents a box, into which the water, sand, gold, &c., flow from boxB, or, rather,

it may be considered a continuation of box B. B D are partitions placedin the box 0, of any desired height, and, say, about six inches apart. Eis another box or tank, situated immediately over the box 0, havingholes or openings in its bottom of about one-half an inch in diameter.This tank is to be kept filled with water, from which the sand and grithave nearly or quite all been extracted by a process described in aformer patent of mine, issued November 3,1874. Said holes should be soarranged that the jets of water therefrom will strike immediately infront of said partitions D D inbox O. The force of these jets ordischarges should be such as to cause a constant agitation of the sandin box O,but should not be sufficiently strong to wash the gold out.

The bottom of box E should not be placed more than eight or ten inchesabove the surface of the flowing sand, and we can then give the desiredforce to the said jets by increasing or decreasing the sides of the tankE, thus making it contain a higher or lower head of water. Someexperimenting will, of course, be necessary to arrive at the properforce required for said jets. The front side of the tank E should be alittle lower than the other sides, to permit the discharge of surpluswater. F is a perforated platform, made most properly of cast-iron,being a continuation in line of the top of partitions D in box 0. Theperforations cause a discharge of sand, gravel, &;c., from the understrata containing the most of the gold. G is a box, constructed similarto box 0, with partitions 9 arranged therein, the same, and the actionofthe jets of water, sand, 860., from the perforated p,latform F,beingnearly the same as in box 0.

As the flow of water will be greater near the discharge-end of box G itwill, probably, be best to begin the holes at about one-half an inch indiameter, and increase them gradually to near an inch at the lower end.

By reason of a tendency of the sands and gravels to converge at thelower edge of circular holes, the holes soon become clogged, requiringalmost the constant attention of an attendant to keep them open. I avoidthis by making the holes nearly square, the upper side being a littleless than the other three, and giving the holes a slight pyramidalshape.

In addition to this, two small pieces of metal, f, are fastened toeither side of said holes, and broughtito a sharp'edge at the upper end.They will thus slightly raise all pebbles that pass over them, and bythis means cause them to be thrown beyond the point where they wouldotherwise be liable to clog the holes.

The platform F and box Gr should not be longer than about six feet;and'if it be found that the gold has not been sufficiently extracted,the process canjbe continued indefinitely by means ofothersimilarly-arranged boxes.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is- I 1. The bars A constructed as shown inFig. 2, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, with a straightperpendicular rear edge, a; front, inwardly inclined edge 11, extendingabout twothirds of the height of the bar, and straight, perpendicularlower front edge a, substantially as and for the purposes described.

2. The grating A, composed of separate removable and adjustable bars A,intermediate cleats A and binding-rods H, all substantiallyholes,provided on each side with deflectingplates f, as and for the purposesdescribed.

5. The gold precipitator and concentrator,

.consistingof grating A, box B, partitioned box 0 D, tank E, perforatedplatform F,,and partitioned box G g, all constructed, arranged, andadapted to operate as and for the purposes described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this1st day of June, 1875.

BRYAN TYSON.

Witnesses L. L. 'LEGGETT, WM. L. BRAMHALL.

